How many plumbers have been arrested since the Super Bowl, anybody know?

How about insurance men? School teachers? Jugglers? How many of them have been arrested since the Super Bowl?

Don't know? Me neither. The answer, probably, is that nobody keeps track of stuff like that. But they do keep track of stuff like this:

Twenty-seven NFL players have been arrested since the Super Bowl. That's a little over five per month. That's a lot. Or at least it seems like a lot. Maybe it's not.

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Maybe there are professions out there who have produced more arrests per capita since the Super Bowl than have NFL players. Maybe, in the big picture, 27 arrests within a given profession over a five-month period are not that unusual.

Or maybe it's highly unusual.

Either way, let's just say the NFL has a growing image problem. Because, unless you are directly affected by it, the number of jugglers who have been arrested since the Super Bowl probably isn't a big deal to most Americans.

However, the number of NFL players who have been arrested since the Super Bowl IS kind of a big deal to Americans because NFL players, even the bad ones, are celebrities of sorts. They are, like Ron Burgundy, kind of a big deal. Role models for kids? Well, let's not get carried away.

They are certainly richer than most of us, and when people richer than most of us get into trouble, most of us find that interesting.

Why, for example, would Aaron Hernandez, who less than a year ago signed a contract with the New England Patriots worth nearly $40 million, including a $12.5 million signing bonus, why would he murder somebody -- or at least put himself in a position in which he has been arrested on charges that he murdered someone?

Hernandez was one of two NFL players arrested last week. The other was Ausar Walcott, signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Browns, who quickly released him after he was arrested on charges of attempted murder.

So two NFL players were arrested last week, one for murder, one for attempted murder.

I'm guessing Commissioner Roger Goodell has had better weeks.

Hernandez and Walcott are the latest entries on the NFL branch of the "Professional Athletes Behaving Badly" rap sheet. Among some of the charges that resulted in the arrests of the other 25 NFL players since the Super Bowl are:

That's a lot of bad business in a five month period by enough players to fill up about half of an NFL roster.

Don't NFL players ever take vacations, or go to the beach anymore?

What are we to make of these guys, and a professional sports league that produced them? Or maybe it has nothing at all to do with sports or sports leagues and everything to do with our culture.

Maybe the blame lies with a culture, in which from a very young age our best athletes are constantly catered to and indulged to the point that it naturally promotes a sense of entitlement in these athletes that is reinforced throughout their developmental years, into and out of college, and leading to the big bucks bang the elite of the elite receive when they become professional athletes.

Chances are that has something to do with why many of them don't' think the rules or the laws of society apply to them.

Except that doesn't account for the Derek Jeters, the Ray Allens, the Peyton Mannings, who even after they become rich and famous, still get it, don't give in to it, and stay out of the dark corners of society, and away from the embarrassing glare and chilling shutter click of the mugshot photographer down at headquarters.

This year's NFL 27 know all about that. All about bad food, bad accommodations, and the bad choices that led to them.

For the rest of us, it's enough to make you want to send your kids to juggling school.

Here's why Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, at age 85 and in his 63rd year as the team's radio and/or TV voice, is still at the top of his game.

Late in a game last week TV cameras caught Dodgers rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig standing in right field between pitches looking down at his soiled uniform.

Scully, who has always known the value of silence by an announcer, paused, to let the image sink in, then quietly remarked, "Puig is looking at his uniform as if he has to wash it."

Free agent Dwight Howard, who is not expected to re-sign with the Lakers, has reportedly not yet decided which team he will wear out his welcome with next.

I'm still trying to figure out how the Indians swept a doubleheader from the White Sox on Friday when the Tribe's two starting pitchers had a combined 15.63 ERA.

Nobody will ever accuse Celtics general manager Danny Ainge of being wishy-washy when it comes to rebuilding his team. Last week Ainge traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn and traded head coach Doc Rivers to the Clippers. How's that for some deconstruction? Ainge is now reportedly listening to offers for the Leprechaun.

Speaking of Boston, how is it that ESPN puts Boston fan Bill Simmons on the set purporting to help "cover" the NBA Draft when he refers to the Celtics as "we"?

Weak of the week

Aaron Hernandez cleared NFL waivers Thursday, which wasn't really a surprise given that he's currently in jail after being arrested and charged with murder, which is never a good career move.

However, just in case any team was thinking about trying to pull a fast one, the NFL office sent out a notice to all teams that if a team signed Hernandez to a contract prior to the resolution of the pending murder charges,

Commissioner Roger Goodell would not approve the contract until Goodell decides if Hernandez should be suspended or otherwise disciplined by the league.

In other words, the NFL is worried one of its teams might try to sign a player who is currently in jail on charges of first degree murder.